Ramsey found not guilty due to insanity

Eve Sullivan

Updated 9:00 pm, Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Aaron Ramsey of Wilton is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or deficiency by a three-judge panel during a verdict reading at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Ramsey was on trial for beating his father, Edward, to death in May after Ramsey allegedly heard voices.
Photo: Lindsay Niegelberg, Niegelberg

Aaron Ramsey of Wilton is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or deficiency by a three-judge panel during a verdict reading at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Ramsey was on trial for beating his father, Edward, to death in May after Ramsey allegedly heard voices.
Photo: Lindsay Niegelberg, Niegelberg

Aaron Ramsey of Wilton, right, sits beside his lawyer, Howard Ehring, left, as Ramsey is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or deficiency by a three-judge panel during a verdict reading at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Ramsey was on trial for beating his father, Edward, to death in May after Ramsey allegedly heard voices.
Photo: Lindsay Niegelberg, Niegelberg

Aaron Ramsey of Wilton, right, sits beside his lawyer, Howard Ehring, left, as Ramsey is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or deficiency by a three-judge panel during a verdict reading at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Ramsey was on trial for beating his father, Edward, to death in May after Ramsey allegedly heard voices.
Photo: Lindsay Niegelberg, Niegelberg

Aaron Ramsey of Wilton, right, sits beside his lawyer, Howard Ehring, left, as Ramsey is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or deficiency by a three-judge panel during a verdict reading at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Ramsey was on trial for beating his father, Edward, to death in May after Ramsey allegedly heard voices.

Aaron Ramsey, 22, of Wilton, is arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. on Friday May 4, 2012 for the alleged murder of his father. In state Superior Court in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, Ramsey asked for a transfer to a high-security prison meant for inmates with mental health issues during a pre-trail hearing.

Public defender James Lamontagne talks to client Aaron Ramsey, 22, of Wilton, who is being arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. on Friday May 4, 2012 for the alleged murder of his father.

STAMFORD -- Following a two-day trial, Aaron Ramsey was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the brutal slaying of his elderly father in their Wilton home.

At state Superior Court in Stamford Wednesday, Judge Richard Comerford said the court unanimously found the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Ramsey caused Edward Ramsey's death on May 3 by beating and stabbing him several times.

But Comerford said the 23-year-old has a history of mental problems and showed psychotic symptoms by age 19. At the time of the killing, he said Ramsey was in an "acute psychotic condition" and lacked the mental capacity to know what he was doing.

Therefore, Ramsey is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and will remain confined pending further notification by the court, the judge said. The case was continued to March 12 for further proceedings.

"That's the ruling and he'll get sentenced," Assistant State's Attorney Richard Colangelo said. "That's what should have happened."

"In Aaron's case, it's just a vivid view of a young man who fell into a fathomless spiral of mental illness," Ehring said. "It just kept going around worse and worse until his hallucinations thought there was going to be Armageddon and his father was trying to hypnotize him."

While at the facility, Ramsey will continue to be analyzed by the hospital's psychiatric review board, which continually monitors patients' rehabilitation. Although Ramsey is in lockdown, Ehring said he can still receive visits from his family and lawyer.

On the morning of May 3, authorities said Ramsey heard his father playing the piano and went into his bedroom at their Signal Hill residence. They said Ramsey told the 73-year-old to leave the house, but his father refused.

Ramsey then gave his father, what he called a "death blow" to the head, and then took the piano bench and beat him with it. Ramsey then retrieved a knife in the kitchen and stabbed his father repeatedly in the neck, torso and crotch. He also kicked him and stomped on his head.

Covered in blood, Ramsey went into a nearby house on Cheese Spring Road and laid down on the floor. Police found Ramsey incoherent, screaming and flailing his arms and legs. He was sent to Norwalk Hospital.

Shortly after, Ramsey's mother, SuAnne, came home and found her husband's body. When police arrived, they found a screwdriver, wrench, knife and broken bench near the body.

During the trial in front of a three-judge panel, police played an interview they conducted with Ramsey at the hospital in which he confessed to the killing. Ramsey gave a detailed account of the crime, but rambled on about evil spirits and aliens throughout.

A local psychiatrist testified Ramsey was suffering "acute psychosis" when he committed the murder and couldn't make rational decisions. The doctor said Ramsey is receiving anti-psychotic medication and needs continued psychiatric care.

The medical examiner said Edward Ramsey suffered blunt traumatic head injury and had about 50 stab wounds to the neck and torso. He said several of those stab wounds did not bleed, meaning that he was dead before they were inflicted.

Ehring said he doesn't know how much time Ramsey will receive, adding he has seen one defendant get only months for a Greenwich murder and another get more than 30 years.